15 years of the best of game-based arts and culture
Games, play, and culture with Jamin Warren
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On every problem with game reviews ever.
For reviewers, assigning a game a score can be a sticky situation. The very act assumes that games are quantitative objects whose qualities can be cut into pieces and weighed, like a pig before a butcher. Start looking at a game too closely and the reasons you like it fall apart. Converting feelings
Explore a desolate Victorian landscape, sans Heathcliff, in "Dear Esther"
Dear Esther is a surreal Victorian ghost story originally conceived as a Half Life 2 mod. The game has been in development for two years, and it looks gorgeous. You might have seen it at the Independent Games Festival. The focus here is on exploration. It’s released February 14 on Steam. –Josiah Ha
Sundance Watch: ‘Repurposed’ games featured in New Frontiers
Continuing our look into the Sundance Film Festival, we are excited to see what comes from Sundance’s New Frontiers, a part of the festival dedicated to new ways to present narratives. Even the ubiquitous James Franco has had his hand in it. One of such projects comes from Italian-based Molleindust
The U.S. Army’s assault rifle game controller.
In a move to get youth off the couch and into a war zone, the U.S. Army has officially licensed a fairly realistic toy assault rifle. The camouflage plastic gun can be used in tandem with a Playstation Move motion controller to play first-person shooters such as Resistance 3 and Battlefield 3. Next
Can videogames and cinema coexist?
Recently, the Village Voice caused a stir when they fired the long-time, reputable film critic, J. Hoberman. The NY Times today has a piece out in which their own big name critics, Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott (you’ve seen their write-ups on Rotten Tomatoes, surely), speak with the now decommission
Thanks to new motion sensor technology, gamers may finally get interactive headgear.
In our Public Play issue, Jon Irwin wondered if the short-lived career of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy was “just a hint of what is now being fully realized.” 3D technology is certainly seeing a resurgence today, but a new device showcased at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show seems closer to the headge
This woodcut board game could be the most beautiful "Catan" you ever play.
Shandy from San Francisco has made a woodcut board of “Settlers of Catan”. His project has already been funded via Kickstarter, but you can appreciate his handiwork here and here. It’s a shame you can’t still pledge; for $1,000 dollars he promised to hand deliver the set in a “super embarrassing Cat
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